Being a lazy person by nature, at least when it comes to things I do not care about, I always took outline style notes on a computer. I think the key to note taking is not necessarily the implement you use but rather how you take the notes. I found that any word processor that allows you to build a bullet list works just fine.
That being said, I can not tell you how many of my Law School classmates literally transcribed the entire lecture. Sometimes it was kind of nice though, because if I miss a class, I could borrow the notes from someone, read them, and take my notes based on that. I always tried to limit my notes to one typed page per hour (10 pint).
As a side hint, to any one who might be in school right now. I used to scan all of my books at the beginning of the semester into my computer. I had a little book scanner, and it would take about 1-1.5 hours per book, I would watch TV or listen to an audiobook while scanning. That way you don't have to drag heavy books around with you, and instead, you can have nice, searchable textbooks any time you need them, on your laptop. Of course, if you are less than honest, or just exceedingly poor, you could also borrow the books from the library rather then buy them. Of course, I could not recommend that as it would mean braking the law :)
He's not kidding about law school and heavy books. I noticed first semester of first year that my law school books already took up more shelf space than all the math books and science books that I had acquired during four years at Caltech getting a math degree.
The UK is far stricter that other countries with "fair dealing".
Also, while what you did was possibly illegal you're not a criminal. People could sue you for loss of earnings, but the police (and fines and criminal records) only get involved if you are selling what you're copying.
In US you would argue fair use while the book publisher would argue that you infringed their copyright by harming the market for that book. Once you scan the book, you no longer have any need to buy it, thus they loose an extra sale. Of course, practically speaking, as long as you don't go around selling your newly scanned copy of said book to all of your classmates, you shouldn't run into any problems.
At my university we can just keep the book for the whole semester.. so the students here rarely buy books anyway (except when the library is selling it's old books.. lots of bargains to be had :).
In general copyright violation as part of trade is what gets police and criminal courts involved, but that doesn't mean copyright violation for personal use is legal.
"Format shifting" tends to be not legal but ignored by everyone. In the UK for at shifting is changing status from not legal to legal. "Time shifting" was written i to law as being allowed because otherwise VCRs would have been ridiculous.
It depends on the country. Guessing from the username, sampo is propably Finnish (like myself) and in Finland you are allowed to make a few private copies of any legally produced and distributed books/media (such as a book borrowed from a library) unless it's protected by an "effective technical protection" (so, if you download a non-DRMed movie from a site where it is legally distributed, you can make private copies). Private copy means a copy used by yourself, your family or close friends.
That being said, I can not tell you how many of my Law School classmates literally transcribed the entire lecture. Sometimes it was kind of nice though, because if I miss a class, I could borrow the notes from someone, read them, and take my notes based on that. I always tried to limit my notes to one typed page per hour (10 pint).
As a side hint, to any one who might be in school right now. I used to scan all of my books at the beginning of the semester into my computer. I had a little book scanner, and it would take about 1-1.5 hours per book, I would watch TV or listen to an audiobook while scanning. That way you don't have to drag heavy books around with you, and instead, you can have nice, searchable textbooks any time you need them, on your laptop. Of course, if you are less than honest, or just exceedingly poor, you could also borrow the books from the library rather then buy them. Of course, I could not recommend that as it would mean braking the law :)